


Mitigate

by TheTofuEatingCat



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Comfort, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Freelancers - Freeform, Gen, Kinda, Maine needs a hug, Oneshot collection, Open For Suggestions - Freeform, Project Freelancer, the freelancers need to sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 00:38:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15785382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTofuEatingCat/pseuds/TheTofuEatingCat
Summary: mit·i·gate/ˈmidəˌɡāt/verbto make less severe, serious, or painful





	1. Chapter 1

Maine was reclusive, silent, strong and standalone. All of the top agents who worked with him knew him by that mindset: an unstoppable warrior. You knew all about that side of him; how he could be as cold as a clear winter night and as violent as a nor'easter storm. 

Even now, he lashed out at the practice dummies with that ferocity. Throwing a backward kick, he felled the last dummy. You sighed as you pressed the button of the com, clicking it on to speak to the silent warrior.

“Maine, you need to go to bed.” You spoke, looking down at him from the training deck. He turned on his heal, his reflective helmet shining in the artificial light as he gazed directly up to you. Just as smoothly, he turned once more and strode out of the training room, the door sliding behind him. 

You let out a relieved sigh and stole another glance at the clock. 00:34. He can’t stay up this late like this every night, you swore you were the only thing keeping him from staying up all night every night. 

Behind you, you heard the familiar slide of the door opening and you turned to meet Maine. You could imagine the look of annoyance on his face behind the mask. 

“It’s O-34 Maine, you need to sleep.” He grunted and you scoffed. 

“I don’t care if it’s barely after midnight, you need to get a better sleep schedule. I don’t want to see you messing up out in the field Maine! I don’t want to see you get hurt again!” 

You glared up at him with crossed arms and an immobile stance, you felt tiny next to him fully armored. Even when you were in your armor you felt tiny, but out- Gosh, it was a miracle you weren’t dead at his hands. You knew if anyone else ordered him around like that, in armor or not, would be dead.

His armored frame slouched a tad, and he looked away. You sighed, stepping forward to him and placing a ghosting hand over his forearm. 

“C’mon, let’s go to bed.” The warrior let out a deep and gravely sigh, letting himself fall into step alongside you as you guided him back to your room. If you even wanted to call it that now, it was as much as his as yours. It barely occurred to you that nobody had really seen your relationship grow in the dark of night. A simple arrangement of him simply needing someone other than Omega to focus on in the night. 

You entered the room, letting go of Maine to go put on your own sleeping clothes. Maine meticulously took off his armor, setting every piece aside. You came up to his back to help in taking off his large chest piece. The warrior froze at your touch as you continued to unbuckle the back-piece. 

“Make sure the front piece doesn’t fall Maine.” He grunted as he took off the chest piece and propped it up against one of your dressers and then sat down on the corner of the bed to take off his boots and leg armor.

Maine removed his last armor piece and lifted his hands to remove his helmet. You beat him to it, each one of your small hands on the side of his huge visor. He tilted his head up at you, and you swallowed any inch of fear under his scrutinizing gaze. He lowered his frozen hands, a silent confirmation to your action. 

You lifted up on the helmet, taking it off his head then taking a step back to place the helmet on the counter beside you. His eyes were glued onto his mask, the reflective visor reflecting both you and him. 

You glanced back to him and noted he wasn’t wearing his usual turtleneck undershirt. Instead, he was unabashedly wearing his scars. The worst of the injury was directly under his chin, therefore mostly concealed from view. But, there was still damage to be seen.

It was odd looking at him from this angle. Above him, instead of him looking down at you. It felt like a shot in the heart seeing him gazing at his helmet with that 100-yard stare. As if the reflection in the helmet showed him his own weaknesses. His mortality, how he was just a person in a suit of armor.  

“Hey.” You whispered into the air while you brought a hand up to his cheek to turn his gaze to you, a small reassuring smile formed on your lips. 

“Let’s get some sleep.” You spoke, clicking off the light and sliding into the warm bed sheets. Maine followed suit, a little further from you than usual. His breathing wasn’t smooth, but uneven and troubled. You turned to him, peering at him in the inky night. 

You scooched forward, and you heard him grunt in question when you fit yourself right up to his chest. You ghosted your hands up his chest, feeling the groves of the many scars he bore. He took in a deep breath, flushing his chest against the palm of your hand. 

The movement brought a smile to your face, encouraging you to tuck your head under his chin. The scarred tissue of his throat brushed against your nose as you did so, causing Maine to take in a sharp breath. He felt your breath flutter against his skin, an odd yet calming feeling. 

“Goodnight Maine.” Gathering up your bravery you tilted your head to press a gentle kiss to his throat. You had no idea what you were expecting, but you found him laying a protecting arm over you to draw you closer to him. A smile found its way onto your lips as you snuggled closer to him, gentle puffs of breaths fanning him. As you drifted off to sleep you swore you heard one word being whispered back to you.

“Goodnight.”


	2. Chapter 2

The leaderboards, that’s all that ever seemed to be on anyone’s minds as of late. Well, most of everyone, except for you. Not that you didn’t care about your standing, rather, you knew you couldn’t quite compare to the top ten. 

You were content with it, being a supportive character, lurking in the shadows of missions. Setting up traps, infiltrating, and gathering information at a personal level. A spy if you will. And that fit you just fine. Your arsenal of techniques were well suited for pre-missions. Which is why you didn’t exactly enjoy hand combat training. 

You had been called down to the training deck to even the odds in training, meaning you were going to fight someone. At the moment you were watching York and South duke it out, with South kicking some serious ass. 

“Ain’t too good without Delta is he?” You heard CT tease to Carolina who simply scoffed at the comment. You smiled as you saw York being flung across the training room, and the beep of the computer system indicating the fight was over.

“Pfft, she tossed him like a bag of potatoes.” You heard Wyoming muse.

“That’s my sis.” North beamed as everyone turned to the monitor to see the replay of her victory.

“Ho man, I hope the next fight is good,” Wash spoke while switching the settings on the screen to show the next matchup.

“If it’s you against me it’s gonna be a good fight alright.” Carolina jeered to the male who shot her a dirty look. The monitor displayed-

“Maine and <State>? Oh man.” You stared at the screen, shocked beyond belief. Out of all of the  _ fucking freelancers. _ The door from the training room slid open, revealing a disheveled York and a triumphant South. The latter of the two took one look at the board before snorting.

“Wow, you’re fucked <State>.” She pat you on the back as she passed and York shot you an apologetic look. 

“Thanks for the reassurance…” You mumbled while watching Maine enter the training room without sparing you a glance. With a deep sigh, you followed, the door sliding shut behind you. You could hear an uproar of talking in the training deck room as soon as it closed, one of the highlights being said:

“We gotta make sure he doesn’t kill her.” You let out a sigh. They had no  _ idea _ that you and Maine were aquatinted, let alone spending nights cuddled up with one another to chase away the nightmares. Maine could be brutal, you knew that, but he had never been so with you. 

And as you walked down you could tell he was contemplating just that. His eyebrows were furrowed in a bout of concentration as if he was solving a hard math problem. He  _ really _ didn’t want to hurt you. 

“Maine.” You spoke, and the male didn’t look up at you, or even acknowledge that you had spoken to him.

_ “Maine.” _ You snapped out, a little louder, but still did not catch his attention. You strode forward and lifted a petite hand to cup the side of his face to get him to look down at you.

“Maine, I’ll be alright. You don’t have to worry about hurting me.” The words came out smooth and reassuring, just like the soft caressing of your thumb at his cheek. He gave a long exhale, while his eyes closed in understanding. You smiled and retracted your hand to take up your spot apart from Maine.

“FILLIS, start program.” You spoke, and the duel was on with the sound of a beep. Maine plowed forward, a move you expected him to do. You easily dodged around the hulking male, and you watched his movements as he slowed to turn around once more. 

Maine easily had a foot on you in height and god knows how much he and his armor weighed- But you figured that he was topheavy, a weakness you knew well enough to exploit in many different ways. You watched the super-soldier with piercing eyes, analyzing his every move as he came to a sliding stop. You backpedaled a bit, knowing you needed all the space you could get when it came to fighting him. If he got too close and kept too close, it would be over. 

For every step Maine made towards you, you took a step back and to the side, ensuring you wouldn’t be backed up against a wall. Irritation was clear on Maine’s face, nobody else really fought in this style of maintaining distance. 

He raced forward again, this time readying himself for your escape to the side. Only for you to leap clear over him, and using his back as a jump board to get further away. A small cackle rose in your throat as you recovered from the jump to see Maine whirl back around even more ticked than before.

Maine scowled and lunged forward, with you once again slipping out of his reach. Only this time, you were there to trip him up by crossing your foot in his path as you ducked behind him. The mischievous smile you were sporting didn’t last long as you felt an iron fist clamp around your ankle. A surprised yelp left your lips as you fell sideways onto the floor with a solid thump. 

Automatically you tousled around to pin Maine down, as you did so, you couldn’t help the childish smile creep up onto your lips. Along with a small fit of giggles that made it evident you were giving Maine the slip as the two of you rolled around on the training floor, trying to get the upper hand on one another. The vague thought crossed your mind of how this highly resembled the two of you fighting over the blankets.

Even when he had both of your hands pinned above your head with him straddling you, you gave your mischievous giggles. It was obvious he was irked at you for being able to avoid capture time and time again, but when the buzzer went off you grinned up at him with unabashed joy: his annoyance melted away to the smallest smile of adoration.

Maine stood, helping you up along the way. The two of you made your way back up to the training deck. When the doors slid open, all of the other freelancers were huddled around the main screen. A look of confusion crossed your face before the realization washed over you. 

_ The instant replay. _

“Pause it there! See, Maine is smiling!”

“Screenshot it and send it to me.”

“I can’t tell if this is a blessed image or a cursed image.”

“Stop referencing memes from like- 2018.” Wash snapped to York while South spun on her heel to meet you.

“Okay- What the  _ fuck _ is going on? You’re not ripped to shreds and we have a picture of Maine  _ smiling? _ ” You stood shocked, not knowing what to say to the Dakota. 

“South, he probably wasn’t taking the fight too seriously.” North spoke to his sister. 

“Still doesn’t explain why he  _ smiled at her. _ ” She snapped back, then turned an accusing eye to Maine.

“So, Maine? You goin’ soft on us?” She jeered to the wordless warrior, who scowled and growled at her. 

“Maine, don’t.” You said while lifting a hand to stop him from advancing on the female freelancer.

“Pft, like you’re gonna stop him, <state>. He could mow you over.”

“But he won’t.” You spoke, looking up at his dark brown eyes. That statement seemed to catch South off guard, as she didn’t snap back a reply. 

“He knows that fighting you wouldn’t get him anywhere good; a good soldier knows when to fight, and when to stand.” 

“And Maine here, is a  _ very  _ good soldier.” You smiled affectionately up to him and his facial features relaxed at the sight. You could’ve sworn the smallest dusting of pink could have been on his cheeks as well.

“Psh, whatever <state>. You’re full of shit.” South snarled as you watched out of the corner of your eye while she stalked out of the training room. You let out a deep sigh, letting your arm fall from Maine’s chest. Said male watched you with a worried look in his eyes as you walked out downtrodden and not wanting to deal with the other freelancers. The male pursed his lips slightly before following after you, leaving the other freelancers behind. 

You stalked into your room, a sour expression on your face. South could really get under your skin at times. The door slid open again, Maine striding over to you with a worried look. You looked up to him before letting out a loud sigh and rested your forehead on his chest piece.

“They’re so rude to you Maine, I don’t know how you can take it.” You said with resignation in your voice.

“It’s like they don’t even treat you like a person. Like you don’t have feelings or thoughts. I don’t know how you do it.” Your voice broke as you lifted your head up to look at him.

“Why don’t they see you like I do?” Maine didn’t offer an answer, he just let out a defeated breath and shook his head. You watched his dejected gaze for a moment before resting your head back on his chest. 

They’d see him for who he is one day. You knew they would.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cuddly Maine is like chicken soup for the soul. uwu

After the incident with South, you had taken precautions to avoid the volatile freelancer at all costs. Not that you didn’t like her, but rather you didn’t want to get into a confrontation with the pink and blonde female. 

So, to avoid the Dakota, you decided to take it easy for the rest of the day: by working on your hacking skills. You lay sprawled across one of the many plush couches in the lounge with your laptop practicing breaking codes. 

The program was to mimic that of a highly advanced security system, specifically to keep you sharp on your skills of switching IP addresses, cracking codes that wouldn’t alert a system manager and so on. You considered it more of a game than practice: but you supposed breaking firewalls and taking files without being noticed was just part of your expertise. 

You mumbled to yourself when the faux program alerted you to being found, prompting you to figure what you had done wrong. 

“I don’t know how you do it, <state>.” You looked up to see Carolina striding forward with a book in hand. 

“What do you mean?” You inquired. 

“Hack and do all that computer stuff. And I thought that York’s job was hard enough.” 

“Heh, his job is to open the hardest of locks, sure he does some hacking, but I gotta look for a needle in a haystack that may or may not be there. But, he’s gotta watch his back to make sure he doesn’t get his other eye shot.”

“Very funny.” Carolina teased as she fell back into a couch of her own to curl up and read. 

The room fell back into silence as you went back to working on your program, you tapping on the keys and Carolina occasionally flipping the pages filling the air as the only noise. 

You were just finishing up a level when the sound of footsteps filled the room before stopping beside you. Without looking up you spoke. 

“You can sit down if you want, Maine.” Said freelancer rounded the couch and you shifted up a bit on the sofa to allot him room. Without taking your eyes off your screen you leaned back to rest against his shoulder. You were expecting his hard armor but was surprised to find to find he was wearing a basic-issued outfit. 

The smallest of smiles graced your lips. You loved when he shed his armor for civilian clothes, not that you’d ever admit it, but it emphasized that he was just a person in a suit of armor. Maine needed to know that, and you often reminded him of it. 

You wiggled a bit, adjusting your back so you weren’t slouching over your computer while Maine lifted his arm up and over your head to clutch you closer to his side. His arm was heavy but comforting. 

The computer let out a small cheerful noise, alerting you that you had passed the level you had completed and that you could continue on. With a tap of the enter key you continued the simulation, reacting accordingly to every obstacle that the program threw at you. In the background you heard Washington chat with Carolina, but you kept on tapping away, largely unaware of your surroundings. 

Behind you, Maine shifted and you let him do whatever to get comfortable while you hyper focused on your program. You let out a small grunt when you got a pop-up telling you that you were being ‘tracked’ and you quickly scrambled to switch ‘servers’. 

A code here, a code there and you had completed the level. You started the next, feeling you were on a roll. Fingers danced along your keyboard as you scrambled to input the right codes, scramble IP addresses, and hack a firewall. Another pop-up. You corrected your mistake and continued on. 

You barely registered Maine’s head falling to your shoulder while you continued, not wanting to break your concentration. You added a few lines of code here, deleted a few there… Another pop-up. You scrambled to correct yourself before the system recognized you as an intruder. Finally, the beeping noise came again and you let out a deep sigh of relief. 

You looked up to the room around you, Carolina had left. Maine on the other hand, was asleep. His head lay slouched on your shoulder and you only just noticed that he practically had you in his lap, arms around your waist… 

A smile graced your lips as you shut your computer and placed it at the side of the couch. Grabbing the blanket that was draped over the back of the sofa, you laid it over the two of you. You snaked one hand under one of his and rested your head against his to fall into a calm slumber. 

  
  
  
  


“I don’t get it North, why the fuck didn’t he chuck them across the room? He’s done it to us plenty of times during training.” South complained to her twin brother, who sat across from her at the dinner table with a few other freelancers. 

“And what the hell was that smile! I’ve never seen him do that, let alone show any emotion!” South continued to babble while North let out a huff of air in amusement. 

“When you got done yelling at <state>, they left, sis.”

“Yeah? So?”

“Maine followed after them.” South spat out her drink, coughing to get any of the fluid that may have seeped its way into her lungs.

“He  _ followed _  them?”

“Yeap.” North said nonchalantly, as if it were an everyday occurrence that Maine went to see if someone was alright. 

“You’re full of shit.” South spat.

“It happened South, saw it with my own eye.” York joked about his blind eye. 

“Ugh, when are you going to stop it with those jokes?” CT groaned while shaking her head. 

“That makes no sense! Why the fuck would Maine give a shit about <state>? They're not even in the top 10!” South countered. Just as she finished a hustling Carolina came bursting into the caf. 

“You guys, are  _ not  _ going to believe this!” Carolina said giddily. 

“What? A new mission?” CT questioned. 

“No, it’s Maine and <state>.” 

“Carolina, we just had this discussion…” South groaned.

“Just come and see this.” Carolina retorted and motioned for the other freelancers to follow. The red-headed woman led them to the entrance to the lounge, she then brought up a finger to her lips, hushing them as she stepped in. 

The group of freelancers all held different reactions to the sight before them, but the consensus was simple: the sight before them was downright adorable. 

You were curled up in Maine’s lap with your head tucked under his, and to many, it looked like he was placing a kiss on your scalp. Maine’s strong arms held your much smaller frame to his chest and in one of his large hands, he held one of yours. 

York looked to Carolina and mouthed: “They’re so cute.” Carolina smiled back at the male. Connecticut held a hand over her mouth, concealing a big smile with tears in her eyes. North simply took out his info-pad to snap a photo, smiling at the serene moment he had captured. 

South stood like a gaping fish, her eyes wide with disbelief at the sight of the steeliest freelancer cuddled up with perhaps the softest of them all. York glanced over North’s shoulder to look at the photo he had taken. 

“Definitely a blessed image.” The half blind freelancer whispered, earning an amused smirk from North. 

“What do you think they would do if we woke them up?” South pondered, and Carolina immediately snapped back an answer.

“Maine would probably kill you, and I have a feeling that <state> wouldn’t stop him.” After Carolina spoke, the larger of the two on the couch shifted. Everyone in the room froze in terror as Maine lifted his head up to sweep his steely gaze across the group of agents. His glare told the whole story, *he was not happy to see them there*. But, despite this, Maine didn’t make a move towards any of the onlookers, nor did he make any noise. It would become evident to all of the other freelancers that he didn’t want to wake you.

The other agents stepped out of the room silently and collectively as Maine glared at them, a clear warning to not wake you, lest Maine attacks them. But, as the last agents stepped out, the male would place several fluttery kisses along your hairline before adjusting the blanket you had thrown over yourselves and to settle back down with you into a soft slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taking requests with Maine I guess???


End file.
